


Like Foxes; Clever, Quick, Hunted

by SnakeFeathers



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Gen, Huddling For Warmth, Just a short missing scene between the bunker explosion and them turning up on Sam's doorstep, Missing Scene, Steve and Nat have a rough night, Well it is now, copious amounts of mud, is unsolicited and unwanted camping a tag, minor fluff and feelings, there isn't really any romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-14
Updated: 2016-03-14
Packaged: 2018-05-26 16:01:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6246496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnakeFeathers/pseuds/SnakeFeathers
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Over the explosion Natasha was screaming; in pain, in fear, in confusion, horror. It was the worst thing Steve had ever heard.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like Foxes; Clever, Quick, Hunted

**Author's Note:**

> This ficlet would not leave me alone until I wrote it. So, have a little missing scene fill-in ficlet for the time between the bunker explosion and Steve and Nat showing up on Sam's doorstep in catws. Just a quick little piece, but, I felt some people might appreciate it. Enjoy!

Natasha was screaming, and it was one of the worst things he'd ever heard. He didn't even know how she could but she was; the concussive blast had knocked the air from his lungs but she was still able to scream, a high, pained wail like an animal from where she was wedged under his arm. He'd never heard her make a noise even close to it in the three years he'd been working beside her. He was absolutely terrified by it.

The concussive blast of the missile exploding had slammed him against the wall, his ears ringing and vision going white from his head colliding with the concrete of their makeshift foxhole. Steel and rubble bounced off the shield, flames licking at his arm where it roared above them like a dragon enraged that they were both beyond its reach. Even above the howling of the fire and the blast he could hear the pop and sizzle of the dozens of memory banks as they were devoured by the inferno. If Zola could feel it eating through his digitized brain it'd be too kind a fate.

It felt like the blast took a blink, an eternity, a heartbeat to pass, to oven heat dissipating as the air returned in a single, great exhale of smoke and dust. Steve coughed, weakly, mouth filled with soot and ash as he took in a gasping breath. Something heavy was pressing down on the shield and it was blocking any light that might've been trying to filter through. He could feel Natasha against him but she was silent now, unmoving, a dead weight.

He braced his back against the wall and heaved upwards, the broken support pillar sliding off to the side, falling to pieces, exposing a gap big enough for them to escape. The ashen dust made him cough again, his eyes stinging and his lungs burning as he had no choice but to inhale it. He pushed more debris out of the way as he stood, trying to take stock of his surroundings. The whole complex was a fiery mess, sparking wires and smashed computer relays littering the broken cement bones of the old base. A small part of him felt a twinge of remorse.

Natasha hadn't said a word, and when he looked down to her he knew why. She wasn't moving, unconscious he reasoned, but he didn't have any time to look her over for injuries. There was a distant hum in the background of the hissing fires, an engine whine he recognized well, and he knew they needed to vanish, fast, or everything would have been for naught. He knelt down and picked her up gently, careful of her back and neck, letting her body rest in the shield's concave underside. He wouldn't be able to fight, but it was the only way to keep Natasha safe that he could think of.

Climbing out was more difficult than he'd thought it'd be with one arm, but he was able to get them out and on solid footing as the first of the Quinjets passed overhead. He could pick out the humming of several unique engines, meaning SHIELD had likely dispatched a whole unit after them. He wouldn't be able to move as fast as he'd like, but he hoped to put enough distance between them and the STRIKE team as he could.

The orange haze of the derelict camp was suddenly blinding white, the high whine of one of the jets passing overhead. He didn't even realize he was moving until he was halfway to the treeline, panic having taken over as he realized they might start shooting at them. By the time he was safely under the cover of the foliage there were already soldiers repelling to the ground, vultures eager to pick over the buildings' bones for any sign of their bodies.

Only a minute at most must have passed since he climbed out of the ruined bunker, but it felt like hours. The flickering glow of the wreckage faded fast behind the thick leaves and branches, leaving him in silence and darkness. Nat was still deathly still but he couldn't stop yet, they were too close to the soldiers. He didn't know what to do. He was sure Nat would have an idea but he wasn't used to being on the run like this, wasn't used to being without the support of a team.

The crowns of the trees erupted with bright blue light, another jet doing a slow pass over the trees looking for them. Steve clutched the shield and Nat's body close to his chest and dropped out of sight into a thicket of bushes, but what he thought was ground was actually compacted leaf litter and his footing slipped, sending him sliding into a muddy creek bed. He barely had enough time to grab at Natasha with both hands and brace before he was tumbling head over heels down a steep bank, the shield clanging off somewhere in the darkness as they came to an abrupt, jarring stop.

"Shit." He exhaled, letting his head fall back down into the mud, having mercifully landed on the bottom of the heap on his back with Natasha still tucked against his chest, unhurt. He laid still to see if he could tell if anything was broken and felt Natasha shift against his chest, taking a tentative deep breath. She made a soft noise and her fingers tightened against his shirt, hesitant, her eyes fluttering open, gleaming emerald under her sooty lashes and the dust smeared across her skin.

"Wonderful timing, Sleeping Beauty." His voice sounded a bit weaker than he thought it would, but Natasha still elbowed him for the effort.

There was a branch digging into his shoulder and a large rock jabbing his hip, but he didn't really care. It wasn't exactly anywhere near some of the worst falls he'd taken in the field, even just since waking up in the current century. He let his head fall back onto the hard river rocks, his heart suddenly pounding in his chest with a new surge of adrenaline. Looking up through the canopy he realized there weren't enough trees over the half-dry creek to keep them out of sight.

" _Shit_." The Quinjet's engine roared as the craft banked, possibly to pass over them again. He barely even registered that Natasha was moving before she lunged off of him, leaping for the shield which lay in a bed of mossy stones to his right. He scrambled to his knees, stumbling as his balance failed him, but he didn't have any time to even think of making a mad dash up the slippery, crumbling slope.

Natasha tackled him from the side, shield strapped to her arm, pushing him under a hollow of roots the rushing waters of a rainy night had swept from some old trees. She slammed the shield into the mud before wedging herself under the roots in front of him, blocking the gap with the shield. Almost instantaneously the basin filled with blue light, the Quinjet hovering above where they had been exposed mere moments before. Her quick thinking, slathering the reflective, brightly-colored shield in muck, probably saved them both, as it didn't reflect the light and blocked any infrared they might have been using to track them.

Neither of them moved or even dared to breathe for what felt like a century, until the glare of the searchlight dimmed and the engine faded away in the distance. Steve exhaled loudly and let himself slump against the tangle of roots. He was way too big to fit comfortably in the confined space and, honestly, he didn't trust the tree to not just topple down on them for disturbing what little soil held it in place, but, it'd worked. He didn't hear any soldiers, gunfire, or more jets coming in to investigate further. The only thing they could hear now was distant thunder.

"We should... we should probably wait until morning." Steve whispered, and, almost comically, the first fat drops of rain began to strike the ground. Nat let out a humorless laugh, her body still tense and coiled like a serpent, fingers tight around the warn leather straps of the shield.

"Let's hope it doesn't rain too much. I'd rather not wake up underwater." She replied, testing to see if the shield would stay in place on its own, before letting herself fall back against where Steve was trying to get comfortable. Steve let out a huff but it didn't seem to stop her any, her elbows digging into his hip, and then his ribs, as she settled against him like a cat.

"Ouch, _ow_! Your elbows _hurt_ , Nat." Steve hissed under his breath, and Nat responded by digging her elbow a bit further into his ribcage before shifting around so they were both a bit more comfortable.

"Yeah and you're not exactly a down pillow, Rogers."

It took a few minutes of wiggling and unhappy prodding before they were the barest semblance of comfortable, or rather, as comfortable as they were going to get in their makeshift shelter. The rain outside was little more than a light shower, quelling most of their fears of rising water. It would also cover their tracks, and hopefully dissuade any closer looks from whatever STRIKE agents were still on the ground.

"... thanks, Steve." It was quiet, sudden, and Steve almost missed it. "For earlier." Her voice was softer, softer than he'd heard it in a while. He wasn't sure what to say and hummed in response, rubbing a soft circle with his thumb against her arm, and after that they were both silent. Everything that had happened in the past hour was a lot to take in, and in the silence they both mulled it over, absorbed it, processed it in their own silent ways.

In retrospect, spending the night curled up with his mission partner, hiding in the cold mud under a tree wasn't the strangest way he'd spent a night. There were plenty of... odd nights he'd spent on the front lines in the European theater, but, huddling for warmth in a cage of tree roots while hunted by his own men was definitely a new one.

He woke up once, unsure of when he fell asleep, to Nat shivering against him. The rain had stopped but it was still dark and quiet outside, the temperature having dropped off significantly. He put his arm around her and pulled her up a little closer, resting his chin on top of her head. He couldn't move enough to slip off the thin hoodie that she'd given him earlier in the day, but he hoped that he was warmer than the wet ground they had to sleep on. She settled after a few minutes and, content, he was able to fall back into a dreamless, shallow sleep.

The second time he woke up was because Natasha had suddenly sat up. Thin light was filtering past the edges of the shield where it didn't seal the entrance completely. Birds were starting to chirp, sleepy early whistles and songs, a good sign that there was nothing around to disturb them. Nat was already hooking her arm into the shield's straps, pushing it out and down hard, sliding it free of the thick roots with a muffled _clang_.

"Looks like we're in the clear." She said, more to the air than to either of them, crawling out and to her feet with a cautious scan of their surroundings. It took Steve a few seconds longer to untangle himself from his now overly uncomfortable contorted position, poking his head out and blinking his eyes sleepily. Nat was already stretching out her back and her arms, yawning quietly and brushing the dried mud from her clothes. She popped her spine and her shoulders, running her fingers through her hair, before turning to him.

"This thing comes in pretty handy." She held the shield out to him, absently brushing away the caked-on mud and dirt, until the pattern underneath shown through again. Steve got to his feet and patted down his clothes, glad to feel the heavy silt slough off of him like a snake's old skin.

"Can't argue with you there." He slid his arm into the straps and immediately felt a bit more energized, "It'll be sunrise soon, we better get moving. There should be a park a few miles downstream, and hopefully another car we can borrow."

"Lead the way. But, we're going to get some Starbucks on the way into town."

**Author's Note:**

> ... maybe one of these days I'll write a short follow-up of the worst roadtrip ever back to DC


End file.
